. >> brown: majority whip dick durbin answered that social security isn't the issue; it's medicare and medicaid. >> social security does not add one penny to the deficit. it's an important program, a critical program. let's take care of it in the future. let's do it separate from the debt debate. medicare is another story. medicare has 12 years of life left and let me make a point of saying it has eight of those years because of president obama's leadership. >> brown: white house officials said the president will send treasury secretary timothy geithner and legislative chief rob nabors to the capitol tomorrow, to meet with congressional leaders. >> warner: online, we have a primer explaining how the fiscal cliff might affect you. still, to come on the "newshour": debating palestinian status at the u.n.; reading the fine print; tackling immigration reform and re-purposing digital data gathered during the campaign. but first, the other news of the day. here's hari sreenivasan. >> sreenivasan: wall street tracked the ups and downs of the fiscal cliff drama in washington today. at one poin